My Outlook.com account was temporarily locked after sending a legitimate BCC message to 116 friends and family.

Paul Ellenbogen 5 Reputation points
2026-09-14T20:00:39.4833333+00:00

My Outlook.com account was temporarily locked after sending a legitimate BCC message to 116 friends and family. I completed the unlock procedure and regained access, but the message was blocked with error 0x80004005 / EC 2850 and an OutboundSpamException (WASCL UserAction verdict: Suspend, ShowTierUpgrade).

This was not spam — it was a personal message to people I know.

I occasionally send BCC messages to a large group of friends and family, and I need to ensure my account is not repeatedly blocked for legitimate mail.

Please review my account’s outbound‑spam status and remove any temporary throttles or restrictions.

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Email
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  1. Chloe-V 13,110 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-09-15T03:09:14.21+00:00

    Hi @Paul Ellenbogen

    I understand how frustrating it is to have your account restricted after sending a legitimate personal message.

    Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators, contributors including external Microsoft employees cannot directly intervene in Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited to providing technical guidance on reported issues, requests, or ideas only.

    The 0x80004005 / EC 2850 OutboundSpamException indicates that Outlook.com’s automated protection identified the sending pattern as potentially suspicious. A large number of recipients, especially when placed in BCC, can trigger this protection even when the message is not spam.

    To reduce the chance of this happening again:

    • Divide the recipients into several smaller groups instead of sending to all 116 addresses at once.
    • Avoid repeatedly resending the same blocked message.
    • Add the recipients to your Outlook.com contacts and communicate with them regularly.
    • Keep your security information updated and enable two-step verification.
    • For recurring messages to a large group, consider using a dedicated mailing-list service.

    Unfortunately, there is no setting that can guarantee large BCC messages will bypass Outlook.com’s automated protection. Microsoft also recommends avoiding putting all recipients in BCC and reducing the number of recipients or messages sent at once.

    If the account continues to be temporarily suspended even when sending messages to smaller groups, please contact Microsoft Support.

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.  

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